After NBC got wind of Shane Gillis’ history of homophobic and racist remarks on podcasts, the comedian knew the writing was on the wall. He was out at Saturday Night Live before he’d even set foot at 30 Rock. He understood NBC’s decision, but in 2020, he told a radio station in New Haven, Connecticut, that he never intended to apologize for jokes he’d made in the past.
The night he was fired was when things really got interesting, Gillis said on the Chaz & AJ in the Morning show. “I was literally on the phone from September 12th, which is when this happened, for three weeks,” he said. “It was crazy, just nonstop on the phone with somebody — agent, management, NBC, somebody.”
Gillis’ message to his management team: “No apologies.”
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Why was the comic digging in his heels? “First off,” he said, “there’s zero apology that anybody on Twitter will ever accept.”
And then there was Gillis’ reputation in the stand-up world to consider. In Gillis’ mind, his comedic heroes would never apologize. “There’s a spirit — you know, I hate when people get very poetic or romanticize comedy — but, you know, I care about it a lot. Guys like Patrice O’Neal, I can’t imagine him sitting down and being like, ‘You’re right! The words I used were inexcusable, I’ve learned, I’m moving forward!’”
Communications were at an impasse, with NBC demanding an immediate apology, and Gillis refusing any such thing. But the comedian found a way to make his mess even messier. “It was kind of a screw-up because I was in a group text with NBC and my agent, and I didn’t know NBC was in it,” he confessed.
“My agent was like, you need to say that this was inexcusable.” Gillis didn’t mince words in his response. “I sent back a text like, eff that. Eff them. Eff all of this.”
That’s when Gillis realized that his would-be employer was in the chat. “I don’t know if I would have had the balls to do that,” he said, had he known NBC was listening.
The NBC representative replied by saying that perhaps the network wasn’t the right platform for Gillis’ brand of comedy.
“Yeah, maybe!” responded Gillis.
Even so, Gillis suggested some apology alternatives. Instead of a statement, why not just let the controversy die on its own? “This is Twitter outrage,” he reasoned. “I think it will blow over.”
NBC wasn’t buying it. Gillis called Lorne Michaels, who understood but said that he needed some kind of statement from the comic to save his job. Gillis didn’t say he was sorry, but he did post this on Twitter: “I’m a comedian who pushes boundaries. I sometimes miss. If you go through my 10 years of comedy, most of it bad, you’re going to find a lot of bad misses. I’m happy to apologize to anyone who’s actually offended by anything I’ve said. My intention is never to hurt anyone, but I am trying to be the best comedian I can be and sometimes that requires risks.”
It was the sorry-not-sorry defense. “This first statement I wrote, I’m not the most proud of,” Gillis admitted. “But I did write it under the most pressure I’ve ever been in in my life, just sitting in the rain outside a comedy club.”
In the end, the wishy-washy statement didn’t quell outrage, and Gillis got the axe. At least he learned some lessons along the way. “It was a crash course,” he said, “on how this industry works.”
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